Haggis for people who don’t like haggis

When you think about it for a moment haggis is pretty unappealing. An monstrous turd of a sausage stuffed with suet and assorted offal (sheeps heart, liver and lungs) served with a veg (neeps) the French only feed to cattle it’s mystifying why we dedicate a night to eating it every year. No wonder you need whisky to wash it down.

And yet (unlike andouillette, which is truly rank) it’s actually rather tasty - the oatmeal gives it a pleasant nuttiness and the seasoning, including a lot of white pepper I suspect, a good spicy kick.

Purists would disagree but I find vegetarian haggis even better largely because it’s not so fatty - in fact I’d even eat it on occasions other than Burns Night if it were available.

Macsweens - Scotlands best known haggis producer - has obviously realised there’s a round-the-year marketing opportunity here and has introduced two posh ‘limited edition’ haggises (haggi?) - a Three Bird Haggis (grouse pheasant and duck) and a Venison Haggis - “haggis for the indulgent connoisseur” according to their rather flashy website. (Rabbie Burns would be turning in his grave).

I tried both a while back and found them pleasant but a little too bland but they’d absolutely hit the spot for a haggis-hater - particularly a wine-loving one. (Both would be grand with a glass of red burgundy).

Apparently there are more in the pipeline. A chocolate-coated Easter Haggis? A smoked Father’s Day haggis? Pulled haggis for the barbecue? The mind boggles.

I’m afraid I didn’t get round to telling you about all this in time for you to order one online but you can apparently find them in Waitrose and Booth's for about £4.

So if you’re a haggis hater would these new posh haggises win you round or is gourmet haggis a contradiction in terms?

PS Incidentally the secret of making neeps or mashed swede palatable, I reckon, is to get them really smooth (drain and whizz in a food processor) and to be generous with the butter butter and seasoning (salt, black pepper and a pinch of nutmeg) At least that’s the way I’ll be cooking them this weekend.

If you want to know what to drink with haggis try these posts:

Which whisky pairs best with haggis?

Which beers are best for Burns' Night?

Or if you're not a haggis fan you may prefer this

An alternative Burns Night menu for six

Image source: ScotGov

Hidden Bath: The White Hart, Widcombe

You might well assume from the name of this pub that it’s just outside Bath - as I did, jumping into a taxi then being told it was less than 5 minutes walk away.*

It’s on the other side of the station in what amounts to a small village, well off the tourist track.

It doesn’t look much from the outside then you notice a window full of Michelin endorsements. Inside there are the statutory scrubbed pine tables and mismatching chairs of any gastropub.

We shared pre-starters of homemade hummus and a coarse, chunky flavourful pesto then a very good plate of fresh gurnard and aioli (my pick) and duck confit and chips in the case of my publishers Absolute Press who think sufficiently highly of the place they’re having their Christmas lunch there.

The cheeseboard wasn’t much to write home about and the one dessert (a chocolate brownie) a little fussily presented so I’d stick to the starters and mains. But it's a useful place to know about if you’re staying in Bath and want to get away from the crowds.

Learn more: The White Hart

*Facing the station turn left under the tunnel, across the footbridge and diagonally across the road up along Claverton Street to the bottom of Widcombe HIll.

For a more comprehensive round-up of Bath restaurants check out this excellent post from Dan Vaux-Nobes of Essex Eating.

Image source: whitehartbath

St John and the art of the long lunch

Everyone I know who’s into food has a soft spot for St John. True, it has/has had its ups and downs but It’s easy to forget just how groundbreaking it was when it opened 19 years ago. And how absolutely right its values still are in terms of serving great ingredients simply,

I’ve posted about their lunches before but that's not going to stop me doing it again (that’s the whole point of having a blog - right?) and I want to tell you about what we ate at the winemakers’ lunch they held last Saturday. Actually there weren’t that many winemakers there, more like back room staff, suppliers, fellow chefs and assorted media bods like me. Any excuse for a party.

So we started with sea urchins. Soft, velvety, infused with the taste of the sea. One each. All you needed.

Then one of St John’s great salads - a mixture of skate, capers bread and rocket. Doesn’t sound too great, does it? Well it was bloody marvellous, not least for the restraint of the seasoning and lack of oil which would have made it too heavy. It’s on page 210 of Fergus's book The Complete Nose to Tail if you want to make it though I sensed there was vinegar there rather than lemon. And look at the lovely way it’s all jumbled together (below, right). A meal in itself . . .

Which of course it wasn’t . . . It was followed by a pheasant and pig’s trotter pie which is on p. 187 of the book which you obviously need to buy now. “A rich and steadying pie” as Fergus delightfully puts it. I love the way it was baked on a large serving dish and served with abundant buttery mash and deep leafy greens.

Dessert was a scoop of very good chocolate ice cream, presumably the one on p. 387.

Then cheese. English of course. Innis brick (goat), Wigmore (sheep), Montgomery cheddar and Beenleigh Blue (sheep) which I tried with a Domaine Boudau Muscat de Rivesaltes*. A terrific, almost Sauternes + Roquefort-class match.

Then prune eau de vie. That was possibly a mistake..

Fortunately I had to leave ‘early’ (after 2 1/2 hours) and go to a wine tasting before too much damage was done.

So, a reminder to go back and have lunch at St John if you haven’t been for a while. And of how to cook a meal for 50-odd friends should the mood so take you ....

*The other wine that stood out was a grenache gris that Fergus and Trevor are producing in the Languedoc with Benjamin Darnault. It’s called Boulevard Napoléon and is bottled as a Vin de Pays de L’Herault and costs £19.01 off the website - not cheap but then St John was never one to skimp and it’s considerably less than the £55 you’d have to pay for it in the restaurant.. Terrific with that skate salad too.

I ate at St John as a guest of the restaurant.

Image Credit: By ireas - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0